Beware of Greeks Bearing Injuries?

The woes of Greek national team coach Otto Rehhagel continue. Yesterday, Rehhagel found out that, in addition to Eintracht Frankfurt's Nikos Liberopoulos, who is still suffering from a long-standing leg injury, he will have to do without Ioannis Amanatidis, who also plays for Frankfurt.

Rehhagel also has problems with one of his second-choice strikers, Panathinaikos' Evangelos Mantzios, who is also injured. The German-born coach will only find out next week, when the Greek players meet for their first training session, whether Mantzios will be fit in time to face Israel.

In the meantime, the Greek football association is trying to make sure that future national teams have additional help from overseas players, by starting the naturalization process for two prominent Brazilian players who ply their trade in the Greek leagues: Panathinaikos' Cleyton and Levadiakos' Leonardo. But Israel need not worry about having to face these two South Americans; even if they are granted Greek citizenship, they will only be able to represent their country in the qualification tournament for the Euro 2012.

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